The Court of Appeal has upheld ten-year sentences imposed on Sean McDermott and Jason McLoughlin for a planned gun attack on a house in Ballyfermot while both men were on bail for earlier offences.
On 27 January 2011, the two men travelled by motorbike to the house and fired three cartridges through the front living-room window, a bedroom window and the front door.
The court recorded that their intention was to frighten the occupants rather than injure them. However, it found that the conduct was planned and reckless and could easily have caused serious injuries or deaths.
McDermott and McLoughlin crashed their motorbike while fleeing from Gardaí and suffered injuries themselves.
At Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in February 2012, both received ten-year sentences with the final three years suspended on conditions. Because they had committed the offences while on bail, those sentences were ordered to run consecutively to sentences they were already serving.
That meant the new terms would not begin for approximately two-and-a-half years in one case and one-and-a-half years in the other. Their appeals focused on the totality principle — the requirement that a court consider whether the overall combined period of imprisonment remains proportionate when sentences are stacked consecutively.
The Court of Appeal rejected the argument that the combined effect was excessive. It noted that the men had extensive criminal records, with 77 and 62 previous convictions respectively, and that the firearm offences were particularly serious.
The judges held that the three-year suspended portion already reflected the guilty pleas, remorse, difficult backgrounds and personal circumstances, while also taking some account of the extra time created by consecutive sentencing.
The court said that without the consecutive element, a smaller suspended portion might have been appropriate. It found the ten-year terms proportionate and dismissed both appeals.